[MENTION=88789]Aardverk[/MENTION]
I wish there was a good answer to the dilema with your revelations. Honestly, those are good reasons not to have faith. I do see that. Faith is a decision made in the heart, not the head, but faith doesn't necessarily have to be blind. It does make me cringe to look at some of those facts, but I hope I can provide some good reasons to have faith.
My information on the canon is based on one source, Evidence That Demands A Verdict (ETDAV) by McDowell, so I would not consider myself an expert on the subject. From what I read though, the earliest attempt to compile the documents for the New Testament was a Roman heretic Marcion (AD 140). As you said, after some bickering, the NT was proposed in AD 325. From my understanding, Jesus rising from the dead had a big impact from the beginning, everyone was talking about it and people were writing about it. I read there were hundreds of original documents out there when the canon came along. To me the idea they could edit or destroy all those documents seems difficult to believe. Paul traveled a lot and there would have been documents out there the canon wouldn't have known about. The oral tradition plus Roman historians would have been outside the canon's influence too. I wish I could say with certainty it's 100% accurate but that's a matter of faith.
The reason, and there's no way to candy coat it, is the other writings (apocrypha books) that didn't line up with the 4 gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. According to ETDAV though, what the canon compiled into the new testament most scholars do consider to be reliable. Times are a changin', there has been a lot more people casting doubt on the reliability of the NT. I mean, we are talking about the story of a man rising from the dead.
I hope this helps with any copying errors, from what I learned of scribes (in ETDAV) they had a lot of rules to follow if they wanted to be a scribe, they had to take a bath before they began to copy a scroll, they had to stop and say a prayer before writing "God", they weren't allowed to write from memory, they had to have the text in front of them, if they made an error they had to begin with a new scroll, and other rules about the quality of the scroll, pen, and ink. They took it very serious. The Qumran site was abandoned in AD 68 just before the temple was destroyed and forgotten until 1947 when a boy found the caves. Those scrolls were like a time capsule since the oldest copies of the OT dated back to 1100's. When they compared the documents from 1100's with the dead sea scrolls the only errors were obvious misspellings and punctuation errors.
Those are reasons I believe the bible is reliable and trustworthy, the reason I believe the NT is the word of God is prophecy, but here are a few other reasons for the hope that's in me:
1. "Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my words will never pass away". If I were to start a new religion with the assertion "You may hear my words and not listen but some day even rocks will hear my words and listen", I can probably figure it won't get off the ground since most will think I'm crazy. Even if 2000 years from now some scientist discovers rocks can hear, that wouldn't help me today. The general consensus from Aristotle's time until Hubble/Lemaitre/Einstein came along was the Heavens and Earth were eternal. I imagine when Jesus said that it seemed strange to a lot of people. We know about entropy and eventually the stars and Earth will pass away. From what I've read of quantum physics atoms do have a shelf life, trillions of years maybe, but they will pass away.
2."He made also of one blood every nation of men, to dwell upon all the face of the earth --" Acts 17:26. It seems to me that proclaiming all nations of men had the same blood would have been another one that would backfire or alienate everyone. I though people were proud of being Roman or Jewish. People used to believe that each race had it's own blood type (actual types are based on antigens, not hemoglobin). A common hemoglobin was not discovered until 1840 by Hünefeld.
3."Word became flesh". That must have seemed a strange concept, in some ways it still is. DNA is a language, complete with syntax, spelling(base pairs), and words (codons). Those words in DNA become flesh in real life.
To me, these trancend doubts about the canon because whoever said those things was either a lunatic making some really good gueses or knew as much about how the universe operates as modern science. Those examples might not have much weight to anyone but me, but I believe Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 are a solid foundation to make a leap of faith.
I hope you find a faith, which satisfies your mind as well as heart.
I wish there was a good answer to the dilema with your revelations. Honestly, those are good reasons not to have faith. I do see that. Faith is a decision made in the heart, not the head, but faith doesn't necessarily have to be blind. It does make me cringe to look at some of those facts, but I hope I can provide some good reasons to have faith.
My information on the canon is based on one source, Evidence That Demands A Verdict (ETDAV) by McDowell, so I would not consider myself an expert on the subject. From what I read though, the earliest attempt to compile the documents for the New Testament was a Roman heretic Marcion (AD 140). As you said, after some bickering, the NT was proposed in AD 325. From my understanding, Jesus rising from the dead had a big impact from the beginning, everyone was talking about it and people were writing about it. I read there were hundreds of original documents out there when the canon came along. To me the idea they could edit or destroy all those documents seems difficult to believe. Paul traveled a lot and there would have been documents out there the canon wouldn't have known about. The oral tradition plus Roman historians would have been outside the canon's influence too. I wish I could say with certainty it's 100% accurate but that's a matter of faith.
The reason, and there's no way to candy coat it, is the other writings (apocrypha books) that didn't line up with the 4 gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. According to ETDAV though, what the canon compiled into the new testament most scholars do consider to be reliable. Times are a changin', there has been a lot more people casting doubt on the reliability of the NT. I mean, we are talking about the story of a man rising from the dead.
I hope this helps with any copying errors, from what I learned of scribes (in ETDAV) they had a lot of rules to follow if they wanted to be a scribe, they had to take a bath before they began to copy a scroll, they had to stop and say a prayer before writing "God", they weren't allowed to write from memory, they had to have the text in front of them, if they made an error they had to begin with a new scroll, and other rules about the quality of the scroll, pen, and ink. They took it very serious. The Qumran site was abandoned in AD 68 just before the temple was destroyed and forgotten until 1947 when a boy found the caves. Those scrolls were like a time capsule since the oldest copies of the OT dated back to 1100's. When they compared the documents from 1100's with the dead sea scrolls the only errors were obvious misspellings and punctuation errors.
Those are reasons I believe the bible is reliable and trustworthy, the reason I believe the NT is the word of God is prophecy, but here are a few other reasons for the hope that's in me:
1. "Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my words will never pass away". If I were to start a new religion with the assertion "You may hear my words and not listen but some day even rocks will hear my words and listen", I can probably figure it won't get off the ground since most will think I'm crazy. Even if 2000 years from now some scientist discovers rocks can hear, that wouldn't help me today. The general consensus from Aristotle's time until Hubble/Lemaitre/Einstein came along was the Heavens and Earth were eternal. I imagine when Jesus said that it seemed strange to a lot of people. We know about entropy and eventually the stars and Earth will pass away. From what I've read of quantum physics atoms do have a shelf life, trillions of years maybe, but they will pass away.
2."He made also of one blood every nation of men, to dwell upon all the face of the earth --" Acts 17:26. It seems to me that proclaiming all nations of men had the same blood would have been another one that would backfire or alienate everyone. I though people were proud of being Roman or Jewish. People used to believe that each race had it's own blood type (actual types are based on antigens, not hemoglobin). A common hemoglobin was not discovered until 1840 by Hünefeld.
3."Word became flesh". That must have seemed a strange concept, in some ways it still is. DNA is a language, complete with syntax, spelling(base pairs), and words (codons). Those words in DNA become flesh in real life.
To me, these trancend doubts about the canon because whoever said those things was either a lunatic making some really good gueses or knew as much about how the universe operates as modern science. Those examples might not have much weight to anyone but me, but I believe Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 are a solid foundation to make a leap of faith.
I hope you find a faith, which satisfies your mind as well as heart.
I kind-a ran out of things to say to you, that's why I invited my two friends to help. There are many things that you've studied in depth, and compared to you, I feel like you're the PHD. professor teaching me, your dumb student.
On the weekends I was into motorcycles, hardtail choppers, thus the name Chopper, big time and had no time for church. One day, in my shop, I looked out a window at the sky and said "If there is a God up there and you want something from me, show yourself to me". A Christian friend, Milton Bimpson, tried to witness to me but I told him that I thought that the Bible was written by good men who wanted to invent a book like the constitution so mankind would live good clean lives. I said something like, "well if God is real and wrote the Bible, he'll have to prove it"! A few months later he invited me and my family (wife & 2 children) to his Baptist church. I heard the Gospel for the first time as an adult and responded to the invitation as well as my wife. My two children were saved a month later at a "Word of Life" retreat for youth. I became a Christian on Nov. 4th 1974, was baptized along with my wife and children about six months later.
I used to belong to the "Christian Motorcyclists Association" It was a lot of fun back then. Have you thought of hip replacement? Boy, mine came out great! If it was not for my back I'd be in fine shape. Well, there is only 2 years diffenence in our ages. Old age certainly is not for the weak at heart
) He said the greatest gift that a Christian can give back to God is his Trust! I guess that is why I don't put a lot of study into the translations I just don't understand all the procedures and complications that the men had to overcome so that we could have a Bible in our language. God is God! He can do anything and I believe that before time began He knew me and knew that He would have to make it simple for this old sheep. Since I came out of the ground, I'm nothing but an old "dirt Bag" :toofunny but this old dirt bag loves God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and I trust them. I can't answer a lot of questions about so many years ago so what can I do to keep my faith alive? TRUST. Oh my biker friend, can you, with me, just trust Him to keep you in the palm of His hand? I wish you would! I'm so concerned for you!!!! I don't even know you but I love you in the Lord. You're in my thoughts daily and I'm going to pray for a breakthrough intil you get it. My promise to you.